Apple delays iOS 16's iCloud Shared Photo Library feature

(Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

Apple appears to have delayed one of the features that we'd all been looking forward to iOS 16 providing. Unfortunately, iOS 16's iCloud Shared Photo Library won't make the September 12 release.

The news comes after Apple announced the iPhone 14 lineup today, with the press release including a footnote that delivers the bad news simply stating that "iCloud Shared Photo Library will be available in a future software update."

Coming soon

Apple has already confirmed that iOS 16 will ship to the public on September 12 and it released the first RC update to developers following today's special event. It isn't yet clear exactly when we can expect Apple to make the feature available, but it seems likely that we can expect it as part of an iOS 16.1 update before the end of the year.

Apple has of course been testing this feature all summer following the iOS 16 announcement in June, so it's disappointing that it has fallen at such a late stage of the development cycle. However, with people's photo libraries involved Apple appears to have decided that it would be better safe than sorry — nobody would want to lose memories if the feature misbehaves.

This news is disappointing, but it comes alongside lots of more positive announcements. The new iPhone 14 lineup is pretty stellar, while the new Apple Watch Ultra is undoubtedly the best Apple Watch to date — if you have the wrist to carry its 49mm size off, that is. Apple also announced updated AirPods Pro as well as the new Apple Watch Series 8 and refreshed Apple Watch SE, too.

Apple also took a leaf out of the Marvel book with a post-event sequence that saw Severance season 2 get a little teaser, too. You can watch that and the entire event all over again via YouTube and on Apple's website.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.